“If I remain, will you simply send me a message telling me to leave? No, that wouldn’t be your style, would it? It would give you immense pleasure to come yourself and tell me to get out. Yes, you would enjoy that. You would do it with great panache and sarcasm in that cold voice of yours.”
A cough came from behind her and Lily whirled about. “Oh, Mrs. Crumpe.”
“Mrs. Winthrop, I am sorry to bother you—and I myself occasionally speak to the portraits, they look so very lifelike, you know—in any case, Laura Beth has cut her finger and is carrying on as if she’s dying at this very moment.”
“I’ll come now,” Lily said.
Laura Beth was in the kitchen, sitting up on the stone-topped table, surrounded by Mimms, the cook; a scullery maid; Thrombin, the butler; and another servant Lily had never seen before. She was sobbing quite theatrically for her worried and quite adoring audience, and Lily was tempted to laugh.
“You naughty girl,” she said, coming through the audience, which parted its ranks for her. “How did you cut yourself? Hush with the crying, Laura Beth. I know it’s a sham. Look, it’s just a tiny little cut. You’re acting like a baby.”
The sobs increased in volume.
“I suppose I will have to tell Sam. I can just hear him sneer about silly little girls.”
The sobs died an instant death. “Mama? Oh, Mama, I cut myself, I did, and it’s bad and it hurts dreadful.”
“Yes, I see that you did, snippet—”
“That’s what Knight calls me.”
“Yes, I know.”
Mimms, the cook, broke into speech. “She didn’t mean to, Mrs. Winthrop, poor innocent little girl. It is all the fault of this stupid girl—” A powerful finger pointed at the hapless scullery maid. “Agnes left the knife lying on the table where anyone could pick it up and kill oneself with it.”
Lily looked over at the pinch-faced Agnes and smiled. “No harm done. I will see to it that four-year-old little girls don’t come wandering into the kitchen and disrupt everyone’s peace.”
This announcement brought a spate of disclaimers, but Lily only shook her head, her smile never faltering. She thanked everyone again, apologized again, lifted Laura Beth into her arms, and bore her off.
“It hurts, Mama.”
“It probably stings, but just a little bit. I begin to think you’re becoming dreadfully spoiled, Laura Beth.”
“Kiss it, Mama.”
“Oh, very well.” Lily dutifully kissed the finger, then hugged Laura Beth close. What was going to happen? Would Knight force her to leave? Leave the children? If she did, would Laura Beth become a spoiled, demanding little twit? What would become of Theo, her so serious Theo? Would he become a recluse, a hermit surrounded by books on steam engines? And Sam, would he be shot stealing apples from a neighbor’s orchard?
She was shaking her head even as the silent questions drifted through her brain. And always, ever since that night, thoughts of those intense, nearly painful feelings he’d made her experience flooded through her, leaving her once again excited, ashamed, and furious, both with him and with herself.
“What’s the matter, Mama?”
“Nothing, my little sweetheart. Nothing.” It was remarkable, she thought, how well and how quickly one could lie to a child. She trusted the child in question was more interested at the moment in her cut finger than in any hidden motives from her mother. A mother who wasn’t really a mother, and a mother who for the first time in her life had felt a woman’s pleasure.
She bandaged Laura Beth’s finger, then patted her bottom. “I want you to play now with—” She broke off, staring fixedly at Czarina Catherine. She cleared her throat. “Laura Beth, I want you to find Theo and ask him to come and see me. All right? You can show him your bandage. It’s rather grand, and Theo will be quite impressed.”
That made the child leave her with more enthusiasm than otherwise.
Lily grabbed the doll and ran her fingers over the arms, chest, and legs. She could feel nothing. She hesitated to destroy Czarina Catherine, but the jewels—Billy’s Baubles—had to be hidden in the doll. Tris had known that Laura Beth never let Czarina Catherine out of her sight. Never. The jewels had to be here. Very carefully, Lily pried loose the head from the body. The doll’s huge painted eyes stared at her. “I’m not murdering you, for heaven’s sake.” The head came off at last. It rolled off her hand and landed on the bed, hollow neck up. The head was empty. Not a sight or a scent of any jewels. Lily carefully stuck her hand into the body stuffing. Nothing but horsehair and buckram wadding.
Lily felt a wave of hopelessness wash over her. The two villains were wrong. There weren’t any jewels. No Billy’s Baubles. If Tris had stolen them, if Tris had indeed hidden them, they were still in Brussels. Quickly she fitted Czarina Catherine’s head back onto her body. It was loose, dammit.
She was plying her needle to the doll’s neck when Laura Beth, followed by Theo, returned to the bedchamber.
“What is it, Mama?” Theo asked. “John and I are working on his lordship’s library.”
Lily had forgotten to make up a lie, and lying to Theo was much more difficult than lying to Laura Beth. She looked him straight in the eye. “I forgot. Go back to John. If I remember I’ll tell you at dinner. Oh, Theo, I’m sorry.”
Theo cocked his head to one side, one of Tris’s gestures, but at her continued silence, he took himself off.
Thankfully, Laura Beth noticed nothing amiss with Czarina Catherine. More than thankfully, she was ready for a nap, her dramatic performance for the kitchen staff having tired her out. Lily was at last free to be by herself for a while. Even Sam was occupied, helping Alfred, the head stable lad, with the horses.
Lily considered going riding, then felt pity for poor Violet. She’d ridden her hard from London two days before. Let her rest another day. No, a walk was what she needed.
To think and to walk.
The jewels had to be somewhere, they simply had to be. Without them, she was trapped. Knight would come, she knew it. She had to find those jewels, sell them, and escape with the children, leave England. She thought suddenly of Theo’s books. He’d brought seven or eight of his favorites. Perhaps the jewels were sewn somehow into the binding. She couldn’t imagine how that would work, but she would shake and bend and feel every one of them very carefully.
Where else?
Lily sighed and walked toward the ornamental lake that was at the edge of the sloping east lawn. Huge, sprawling oak and willow trees skirted the perimeter of the lake. Now naked-branched, the trees looked as miserable and dull and empty as she felt. The water was a flat gray, the few ducks that lived there evidently bored with their surroundings, for they were nowhere to be seen. Lily walked, thinking, discarding ideas as fast as she came up with them. While she walked, she pulled the pins out of her hair, tossing them to the ground, throwing them at trees, all in all paying no attention whatsoever to anything outside herself and those bloody jewels.
Billy’s Baubles. She shuddered, thinking of those two wretched characters, Monk and Boy. Even if she found the jewels, even if she managed to sell them and escape England with the children, they wouldn’t give up. They would keep looking until they found her.
Lily slumped against an oak tree, defeat washing over her.
That was how Knight first saw her. She looked beaten, her shoulders slumped forward, her glorious hair loose down her back and over her shoulders. Her gown was old, a muddy brown wool, and her heavy shawl looked fit for the trash. He felt something stir deep inside him.
It was contempt.
He felt it for himself until he drew a deep breath, took another look—realistic this time—and saw a young woman deep in thought, very probably trying to figure out how to best him.
The jade.
Lily was thinking about him. Again. She didn’t want to; she wanted him to disappear, to fall into some faraway oblivion. But he wouldn’t. She could still feel the touch of his mouth, his hands.
“Lily.”
She groaned; now she was hearing his voice. It was too much. She straightened her shoulders and walked away.
Knight, nonplussed, shouted, “Lily! Wait.”
Oh, no, it couldn’t be. Lily looked over her shoulder, saw him striding toward her, and broke into the fastest run she could manage.
“Stop, dammit.” It didn’t take Knight long to bring her down. His legs were longer, stronger, and he wasn’t hampered by silly petticoats and skirts.
He grabbed her arm and spun her around.
Lily swung her free arm at him, but this time he caught her wrist in the air, three inches from his jaw.
She made no sound, said nothing, merely stared up at him, eyes narrowed, her breath coming heavy and fast.
“You won’t strike me again, Lily. I won’t allow it.”
He didn’t release her wrist. And now he grabbed the other one, holding her hands together in front of her with one of his. She was breathing hard, and it was difficult for Knight to keep his eyes off her breasts.
“Why did you run from me?”
Stupid question. Damn him for a fool, a thousand times a bloody fool. He couldn’t, wouldn’t, let her see any weakness in him. She’d take advantage of it in a flash. He wouldn’t let a woman like her bring him low.
She stared at him straightly, showing no emotion, no expression, and said calmly, “You humiliated me. I dislike you. I don’t want to see you. I certainly don’t want you to touch me.”
“Well, that’s a pity,” he said and held her wrists more firmly. “I’m here and you’re looking at me, and I am touching you, Lily, not where I would like—indeed not where you would like—but I am touching you.”
She sucked in her breath and tugged, but it didn’t do any good. Then she stood very still, simply waiting, staring down at her hands, and his holding them.
“Of course you knew I would come. This is my home.” He paused for a moment, looking out over the ornamental lake. “Dervin Winthrop widened this from a stinking little pond into a lake some eighty years ago. It really is quite impressive, don’t you agree? Saying nothing, then? Well, it is impressive and very beautiful in the spring and summer.” He waited for her to respond—to say anything—but she didn’t. “I wondered, actually, if you would still be here. I expected you to find the jewels and be gone by the time I arrived.”
“I haven’t found them.”
“Where have you looked?”
“In Czarina Catherine.”
“An excellent hiding place. Laura Beth doesn’t let the doll out of her sight. No luck, then?”
“No.”
“Listen to me, Lily. If we find the jewels—yes, it’s we now—they will be returned. They’re this Billy’s property, whoever the devil he may be, but I will discover his identity. I have no intention of becoming a criminal.”
She looked up at him now. Her voice and face were equally cold. “I don’t mind. Being a criminal would be better than being a poor relation.”
“Relation?” A dark eyebrow shot up a good inch. “You’re no relation at all, Lily,” he said slowly, looking into her eyes. “You’re no relation to the children, no relation to me.”
She made a low sound deep in her throat and tugged again. He held fast.
“No, I really don’t wish to chase you to ground any more today. Just hold still.”
She became quiet again, too quiet.
He wanted to get a rise out of her. It was perverse, he knew it, but he couldn’t help himself. God, the tumult she’d put him through since she’d just strolled into his life such a short time before. “I see you didn’t bother to deny it this time. You aren’t Laura Beth’s mother, are you?”
He could see it in her eyes, the question of whether or not to lie to him. “Tell me the truth, damn you.”
“No,” she said. “I am not the woman who gave birth to her, but I am her mother.”
He should have been warned, but he wasn’t. He was immersed in thought, and in erotic images too vivid to abide, when suddenly she kicked him, hard, in the shin. He released her and she jumped back even as he sucked in his breath and hopped on one foot.
She turned quick as a hawk in flight and sped away, back toward the huge manor house.
He didn’t go after her this time. If he had, when he caught her he’d have thrashed her. That or kissed her until they were both insensate.
No, he’d bide his time.
He returned to the manor house. He hadn’t even been inside yet since his arrival. One of the stable lads had seen Lily walking toward the lake and had told Knight, who immediately followed her.
Thrombin didn’t seem at all surprised to see him now, just bowed as low as his age and arthritis would allow and gave him a beaming smile. Knight saw that there were even fewer teeth in Thrombin’s mouth than the last time he had been here, and felt a stab of concern. Lord, Thrombin had known him since his birth. They chatted for a moment, then Knight heard his name shrieked out.
He looked over to see Laura Beth bounding down the stairs as fast as her short legs would allow.
“Be careful and slow down!” But she didn’t, of course. He strode toward the staircase, and when Laura Beth landed on the third-to-last step, she launched herself at him.
He heard Thrombin moan. Knight just smiled and caught her, drawing her up against his chest and kissing the smiling little mouth. “Well, snippet?” He tossed her into the air, and her screams brought every Castle Rosse servant.
Mrs. Crumpe came to a panting halt in the entrance hall. She stared. “I don’t believe it,” she said aloud.
She watched her urbane, sophisticated master toss the little girl again, then catch her and hug her until the child squeaked with delight. She watched as Laura Beth nearly choked the viscount, giving him wet smacking kisses on his cheek.
“Sir!” Theo, older and trying to be as sedate as an indifferent adult at a surprise visit from a favorite uncle, made his way down the stairs slowly, but he was speaking at a great speed. “Oh, Cousin Knight, wait until you see what John and I have done in the library. Do you know that I’m already to the L’s? Do you know how many volumes are there, some that haven’t even had their pages cut?”
“No, Theo, I don’t know. To the L’s, huh? Remarkable, my boy, quite remarkable.” Theo held back just another very short instant; then, as Knight shifted Laura Beth to hold her in one arm, Theo, with a big smile, flung himself against Knight’s side.
“I’m glad you’re here, Cousin Knight. Mama’s been so unhappy and we were so afraid you were really hurt bad, even though she told us you were all right.”
“It’s Cousin Knight!”
“I’ve only got two arms,” Knight shouted as Sam pelted through the front doors.
If there had been four children, perhaps it would have been a problem. However, Knight simply gathered both boys against him, and for a moment he closed his eyes. God, dear God, they were his and he’d missed them so much. He just hadn’t realized—
“Hello, my lord,” John said. “We’re delighted to see you restored to good health. We were all quite concerned when Mrs. Winthrop told us of the attack in London.”
“Mama was crying,” Sam said, looking up at Knight, “but she made us promise we’d be good because she was riding to London immediately to take care of you.”
Knight didn’t like to hear that. He hugged each child again and released them. “Ah, hello, Mrs. Crumpe. Mrs. Allgood sends her love. It’s good to see you again. All of you,” he added, encompassing all the servants he saw. He must have put on quite an unexpected show for them. “What do you think of these monkeys? Are you ready to run screaming from Castle Rosse?”
“Oh, Cousin Knight, we’ve been good as—”
“Good as what? Dross?”
“What’s dross?” asked Laura Beth.
“Nothing important, snippet. How would all of you like to have some of Mimms’s lemonade and some cakes? Of course you would, and I also. There’s greed shining from all our e
yes. If you please, Mrs. Crumpe? We’ll be in the drawing room—no, make that the library. I have to examine all the tomes to the L’s.”
Theo beamed with pride.
“I’ve got so much to tell you about the horses,” Sam confided, sticking his hand into Knight’s. “It’s all right, I washed them after I mucked out Violet’s stall. You know, we need to have some work done on the southern paddock,” Sam continued, all seriousness and plans.
Knight swallowed and listened, to all three of them. At once.
Fifteen
Knight bided his time until an hour before dinner. Lily hadn’t shown her face or any other part of her. But he’d learned a lot from the children that afternoon.
And he saw, really saw, how much they adored her. She was their mother, no way around it. While he’d been in his royal snit, when the children hadn’t been there in London, he’d forgotten.
“I thought Mama was going to fall over, she was so upset,” Sam had said to Knight over lemonade and cakes. “But you know what she’s like—she never cries, her lips just get all stiff. She left with Charlie really soon after he arrived.”
“Sam’s right,” Theo said. “And Mama was real quiet when she came back. We were worried, Cousin Knight, but she promised us you were all right.”
Knight could just imagine how quiet she must have been.
“I prayed real hard for you,” Laura Beth said, beaming up at him, her mouth full of scone and strawberry jam.
As he dressed himself for dinner, he gave unscrupulous thought to how he was going to get Lily to the dinner table. He smiled to himself when he hit upon just the thing. As he shrugged himself into his evening coat, he found he missed Stromsoe for the first time. He grinned to himself, remembering how Stromsoe had nearly burst into tears at the thought of his master touching his high-gloss Hessians with dirty fingers.
Knight was whistling when Thrombin arrived for his message to Lily. “Ah, yes, Thrombin, please tell Mrs. Winthrop that I’ve come to a decision. Tell her that I expect her downstairs to dinner, that it is essential to her future and to the children’s future that she come.”
Night Shadow Page 20
